The predominant religion is Roman Catholicism (more than 55%) into which many indigenous Guatemalans have incorporated traditional forms of worship. Protestantism (40%) and traditional Mayan religions (1%) are also practiced.

Spanish is the official language and is spoken by about 60% of the population. But Spanish is not universally understood among the indigenous population as about 40% of the population speaks more than 20 Amerindian (indigenous) languages including Quiche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi, Mam, Garifuna and Xinca.

Alvaro Colom Caballeros, an engineer, of National Unity of Hope (UNE) party, took over as the first social-democratic President of Guatemala on 14 January 2008, succeeding Óscar Berger Perdomo of the Grand National Alliance (GANA) party. The first round of Presidential election was held on 9 September 2007, which failed to produce an outright winner. In the second round of the election which was held on 4 November 2007, Colom won against the other contender, Otto Perez Molina of Patriotic Party (PP). UNE has 35 seats in the Congress, while PP and GANA both have 24 seats each out of the total strength of 158 in the Congress.

Administration is heavily centralized. Transportation, communications, business, politics and the most of the urban activities take place in the capital Guatemala City, which has about 2 million inhabitants within the city limits and more than 5 million within the metropolitan area. This is a significant percentage of the entire country´s population of about 13 million. Quetzaltenango and Escuintla are other major cities of Guatemala.

The United States is Guatemala's most important trading partner which accounted for 42.2% of its exports and 34.9% of its imports in 2007. Other important trading partners are the members of the Central American Common Market, the European Union, and Mexico.

In March 1998, Guatemala joined its Central American neighbors in signing a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). In 2000 it joined Honduras and El Salvador in signing a free trade agreement with Mexico, which came into effect in 2001. The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) entered into force in July 2006, and has since spurred increased investment in the export sector. Income distribution remains iniquitous, with more than half of the population below the national poverty line. Current economic priorities of the government are: liberalizing the trade regime, financial services sector reform, overhauling public finances, simplifying the tax structure, enhancing tax compliance, and broadening the tax base, improving the investment climate through procedural and regulatory simplification, and narrowing the trade deficit.

Problems hindering economic growth include drug trafficking and rampant crime, low levels of education, inadequate infrastructure, and underdeveloped capital market, which also hamper foreign participation. Guatemala's large expatriate community in the US makes it the top remittance recipient in Central America, with inflows being equivalent to nearly two-thirds of exports.

Economic growth is expected to be slow in 2009 as export demand from US and other Central American markets drop, and foreign investments decline amidst the global slowdown.

On November 11, 2008, the Government of Guatemala presented the Foreign Policy document for the period 2008-2012 to the accredited diplomatic corps. The stated foreign policy is based on four pillars: i) Solidarity- human loyalty, ii) Governance - civic loyalty, iii) Productivity - economic fairness, and iv) Regionalization- loyalty to Central American neighbours.

One of the main goals of the foreign policy is to deepen its relationship with Central American countries. Other priorities stated in the policy document are: i) improving Guatemala´s image abroad, ii) support to the Central American integration, iii) addressing the situation of migrants, and iv) finding a definitive solution to territorial dispute with Belize. Guatemala is the seat of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN).

The stated foreign policy of the Government of Guatemala has eight strategic goals: i) to expand the presence of Guatemala in the world and improve the country's image, ii) to promote the consolidation of the Central American integration process, iii) extend assistance and protection to Guatemalan migrants, iv) encourage the final resolution of the territorial dispute with Belize, v) incorporate an international dimension in the fight against crime, vi) provide a conceptual identity to the foreign policy with a commitment to promote democracy and respect for human rights, vii) strengthening international cooperation with the outside world, and viii) strengthen the institutionalization of the foreign policy. The Policy Plan Document says that Guatemala intends to increase its diplomatic presence in the world. Despite maintaining diplomatic relations with 143 countries of the world, only 37 of them have resident embassies. The policy document underlines that it is important for Guatemala to be present in regions where commercial interests exist, like the English-speaking Caribbean, the African Continent, the Persian Gulf, Central Europe, Southeast Asia, India, and Oceania.